The present invention relates to a conveying hose having a hose wall that is provided with reinforcing means, at least one segmented, sleeve or collar-like floating member that extends about the hose, and at least one shoulder that is disposed on the outer side of the hose, extends about the periphery thereof, and extends into a correspondingly shaped groove or recess of the floating member, for suction dredgers or loading and unloading stations of tankers that are riding at anchor in roadsteads.
Conveying hoses of this general type, which are known from DE-OS 2 004 007, are assembled to form conduits that can float and through which the material dredged up by suction dredgers, for example while producing or deepening navigable waters or during the recovery of gravel and sand, is conveyed to the shore. Such floatable conduits are intended to allow a dredger to alter its location in an unobstructed manner over a wide range. Similar requirements are also set for conduits that are comprised of the known conveying hoses and are connected to tankers that are riding at anchor in roadsteads, with these conduits also having to follow the movements of the tankers caused, for example, by currents, wind, and heavy seas. In this connection, the hose shoulder that extends into a recess in the floating member is intended to prevent the floating member from altering its position on the hose due to the constant movement of the floating hose, and to prevent the floating members from possibly gathering at one point. This would have a considerable adverse effect upon the balance or uniform floatability of the hose, and could overstress the hose and its connections on the dredger, tanker, or unloading stations to such an extent that failure of the hoses and tubes is not out of the question.
The tension forces that act upon such large hoses, which preferably have diameters of 500 mm and more, and that are caused, for example, by tidal currents, result in a considerable stretching of the length of the conduit that with the individual conveying hoses can cause a reduction of the circumference that is so great that the shoulders can no longer fulfill their task of positioning the floating member on the hose. Furthermore, disruptions during conveying of the dredged material can cause increases in pressure in the conveying hose that widen the hose to such an extent that the floating members, which extend about the hose and have fixedly interconnected sections, break or fly off of the hose.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to embody a conveying hose, especially one having large diameters, that is provided with floating or buoyancy members in such a way that the forces that act upon the hose neither damage the floating members nor promote axial shifts of the floating members on the hose.